Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 5

In this lesson you are going to learn how to read and write な、に、ぬ、ね、の. な na The cross shaped figure just knocked (na) over something. A child cries after being told 'Nah, you can't play with us'. A cross, dash and an alpha sign. The cross shaped snake charmer at left throws a bit of food to the snake coiled in the middle. The snake thinks "Nah" and doesn't catch it. なにか (nanika) something なか (naka) inside, middle, among なる (naru) to become に ni *It looks sort of like a knee (when you bend your leg) One way to remember this is to knock the 'n' over (rotate anticlock 90 degrees) then knee (ni) it horizontally to the right. Alternatively, the smilie face fell over and skinned its knee (ni). にる (niru) to resemble, to be similar にく (niku) meat にんげん (ningen) human being ぬ nu Looks like a bowl of soup with a chopstick and noodles (nu) spilling out. A way to remember the difference between ぬ (nu) and ね (ne) is that ぬ is the one with the u shape (it's actually more of a v) near the center of the character. ぬるい (nurui) lukewarm, tepid ぬぐ (nugu) to take off (clothing) ぬれる (nureru) to get wet ね ne It looks like the letters 't' and 'e' with the e upside down. Add an n and you get "ten". Reverse that and you get "net" (ne). One way to remember this is to rotate the 'e' of 'ne' until it's upside down then move it under arch on the 'n', merge the right sides of both letters together and hoist a mast (+) to signal your success. ねん (nen) year ねぎ (negi) spring (green) onion ねだん (nedan) price, cost の no の is similar to the forbidden traffic symbol. Which is the main word for forbidden: NO. の looks like both an n and an o morphed together into one character. It is n-shaped, but has the roundedness of an o. の (no) of; to のう(nou) Nou play; brain, memory のる (noru) to ride, to board のうみん (noumin) farmer